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Texas assigns more agents to border control

More state law enforcement agents are headed to Texas's southern border to help stem a growing crisis as thousands of mostly Central American immigrants cross over, overwhelming federal agents and shelters.

Texas assigns more agents to border control

Migrants are released at a Greyhound Bus station in Phoenix on May 28 after being flown from Texas to Arizona because of a surge in migrants apprehended in Texas.(Photo: Michael Chow/The Arizona Republic)

AUSTIN, — More state law enforcement agents are headed to Texas's southern border to help stem a growing crisis as thousands of mostly Central American immigrants cross over, overwhelming federal agents and shelters.

Gov. Rick Perry and other Texas officials announced late Wednesday the initiative to deploy more Department of Public Safety, or DPS, agents to the border — at a cost of $1.3 million a week. Federal Border Patrol agents have been overwhelmed recently with a surge of unaccompanied minors and other immigrants illegally crossing over.

"Texas can't afford to wait for Washington to act on this crisis and we will not sit idly by while the safety and security of our citizens are threatened," the Republican governor said in a statement. "Until the federal government recognizes the danger it's putting our citizens in by its inaction to secure the border, Texas law enforcement must do everything they can to keep our citizens and communities safe."

But the move to deploy more state agents raises the question: Should states be more involved in policing their own borders?

Last fall, DPS officials conducted a similar operation on the border that agency officials touted as a success for curtailing human and drug smuggling. But the effort drew some criticism from immigrant advocates for employing controversial traffic checkpoints.

The current crisis on the border consists mostly of minors from Central America who are filling up federally run shelters and overwhelming Border Patrol agents. More than 42,000 youth have crossed over since October, up from 13,625 two years ago.

Using that chaotic flow, terrorist groups could try to inject militants into the USA, said George W. Grayson, a Mexico expert at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., who has written about border security. He said President Obama's flexible policy toward immigrant youths from Central America is encouraging more immigrants to attempt the dangerous northerly trek.

U.S. immigration policy allows youngsters from Central American countries other than Mexico to be released to an adult living in the USA while awaiting their court hearing. Mexican youth are returned to an agency in that country.

"It's the failure of Washington to act that has forced the states to take action," Grayson said. "The states are at the end of their ropes. They have to do something. The federal government has contributed to the problem rather than alleviate it."

But the crisis on the border is a logistical one — lack of beds and proper facilities for families, for instance — not a public safety one, said Josiah Heyman, an anthropology professor at the University of Texas at El Paso. Heyman has studied border security for more than two decades. Deploying more state agents who may not be trained in immigration rights could pose a risk for migrants, as well as border agents, and could result in accidental shootings or wrongful arrests, he said.

"These are people who are not trained going down there with a poorly defined mission," Heyman said. "That's the danger."

At the border, news of the incoming state officers was applauded by some federal agents, said Chris Cabrera, a McAllen-based Border Patrol agent and vice president of the local chapter of the National Border Patrol Council.

DPS officers already have a presence on the border and work alongside federal agents. Additional officers could help with the constant shuttling and housing of new immigrants and free up Border Patrol agents to go after more dangerous human and drug smuggling rings, Cabrera said.

Meanwhile, the flow of migrants continues. On Wednesday, another group of 290 immigrants, all women and children, turned themselves into Border Patrol agents near McAllen, he said.

"Law enforcement is law enforcement. We're happy to have them," Cabrera said of the DPS agents. "It's disheartening that the help comes from outside as opposed to inside (the federal government)."